Through a Naturist Lens

We all have high hopes for 2021. I know that I, like many others, was smiling with determination, wine glass in hand in defiance that this year was going to be better than 2020. The only resolution that came to mind, was the realisation that if there was to be a positive change, it had to begin with me. If left to it’s own devices with me sitting on the side lines, the view into the new year doesn’t look too appealing. So, what can I do about it? Well, to be honest, not much other than to own my stuff, to take responsibility for my inaction and actions. Unconsciously, this began yesterday when I posted a “fun” piece.

I had fun. I took a fun image and I engaged with naturists who also took the challenge to have fun. That was the first step. Then, in the afternoon, I returned to work on a naturist story. Well, at least the main characters prefer not wearing clothes. These characters are actually aliens on Earth when the story begins. I know that they will find themselves off planet in short order, and that is about it.

I contacted my eldest grandson and asked if I could name the main characters after him and his girlfriend with the understanding that these characters would mostly be nude. The two of them agreed and I quickly did “search and replace” to substitute the new names while I did a quick edit of the first 6500 words. This is going to be fun for me, a change from the focus on non-naturist fiction that I focused upon for the past three or four months.

This was a first for me, risking a highly positive grandfather-grandson relationship. Likely, there was nothing really at risk other than in my head. I had to face my fear head on. Perhaps, this is something we all need to do, sooner rather than later, when it comes to owning our naturist/nudist persona in the world.

We all have those negative nay-sayer voices in our heads, voices that act as censors. Our fears imprison us and leave us feeling helpless as we watch small opportunities for naturism slip away. Most often, no one has a clue about our desires/needs for being clothing free. And the truth is, most of the planet could care less as they all have their own issues to deal with.

It is in the small things that each of us can begin to live more authentically. For example, you share a living space with someone. Be honest about your desire/need for nudity. It is a conversation that needs to happen. You might be surprised at the response to that honest sharing. If the response is positive, you test boundaries. If the response is negative, you claim your space to be lived your way. In shared areas, wear a housecoat or wrap or whatever. The choice of cover-up tells others that you are naked beneath the material, and that you are honouring their need not to be confronted with that fact.

However, there are other things at play in all of this, especially the need people have to control. The only one a person can control should be themselves. Using power to force a situation, either pro or anti naturism is just plain wrong, and it needs to be dealt with in order to arrive at a less toxic relationship. But, we usually respond to these things with fear, some of it realistic fear, and most of it irrational.

The task, is to be honest with ourselves, to confront our own fears and then risk being authentic striving for the best version of ourselves that lays within each of us. And importantly, do so with a smile and having a bit of fun. Standing outside around a ice-cold firepit in the wee hours of a morning, like the image above, is about fun – safe fun. Find the cracks that are in your protective armour. Dare to risk a small thing. It will be the beginning of a new you.

Today, one of my Twitter friends, Emma James, proposed a fun activity based on a cartoon. Her Tweet challenge came in the wee hours of New Year’s Day:

“We have to start 2021 with a #challenge. I love this cartoon. It reminded me of the fun I had creating this picture, so get your best #christinekeeler on for a #2021chairpose. It’s time for the maligned #nudes to break out #women #men #nude #power “

It wasn’t long before so many began to submit their New Year’s day images with the pose in place. Naturally, I didn’t want to miss out on all the fun. It took a while before I finally came up with a setting for the challenge. Now, before I show you my entry, I want to comment about the dynamics that have led to this type of activity. Covid19 has turned our world upside down in so many ways. Most places in the modern western world are in some form of lockdown or other. Most of us find ourselves behind closed doors, unable to bring others into what was once considered the safe space of home where one was king or queen. Social contact has been restricted to phone calls, sometimes gathering together virtually, and at safe distances while outdoors.

With the turning of the wheel of time to give us a New Year, nothing really has changed. Covid19 is still here and running rampant as we begin to attempt to vaccinate enough people to allow us to feel safe enough to re-engage in the world of physical presence. The challenge remaining to us is to shift our thinking from being held hostage, to one of adopting a different lens to look at our world and our lives. The challenge is to go forward and risk. For those who are naturists [nudists for some], that challenge is double-edged. As one of my long-time friends, a journalist from Montreal, Canada, Jillian Page, has stated in her recent article, A New Year, a New Community,

“We need to raise the profile of social nudism, and there may never have been a more opportune time as the world becomes more sensitive now to systemic discrimination against so many groups of people.”Jillian Page, The Naturism Community

As Emma stated in her tweet, “It’s time for the maligned nudes [naturists and nudists] to break out.” We need to claim our spot, our identity as naturists which is being co-opted by the porn industry in hopes of spreading their “tent” to include naturism as a subset of their economy. How are we going to be able to do this? Well, it can only come by each of us daring to be authentically our nude selves, promoting what we mean about who is a naturist, and what naturism is. Our images are part of that movement, that agenda.

We can’t get there hiding in a closet.

Okay, in case the title wasn’t clear, I am wishing you a Happy Naked/Nude New Year in both French and Scottish Gaelic languages. I don’t know much Gaelic other than through language study. Why the interest? Obviously there has to be a connection with ancestry. I speak French and English with relative ease as they are the languages of my parents. My ancestors also spoke Gaelic in Europe, and Anishinaabemowin [Ojibwe Language] and Kanyen’kéha [Mohawk Language] in Early North America. Happy New year in Mohawk is Ohserá:se! In Ojibwe it is Minawaanigozi Oshki Biboon. Regardless of the language, Happy New Year.

This morning I began a new journal. I am somewhat regular in keeping it. Since 2013, the journal has also contained skyclad images. Not every entry has such an image, nor is every day given an entry. Travel and visiting is often the most likely reason for omissions. Do you keep a journal?

The sun is shining. I will be going out for a countryside walk of an undetermined distance this afternoon, This morning, I took down the Christmas decorations. It is a tradition to take down the decorations before New Year’s Day so that we drag as little of the old year, as possible, into the new year. It doesn’t have to make logical sense. It is the way it is. Where there is light, there is hope and life.

The walk happened. Sunshine, -12 Celsius, a pleasant breeze made it feel like – 18. We walked 8 kilometres with two of them through soft snow [think walking in loose sand by the sea] making it a good workout. Now, pleasantly tired and parked beside my laptop with a good, hot cup of Earl Gray tea, ready to relax. Leftovers for supper means that there is not much left to do for the rest of the day.

Yesterday, I finished the third rewrite of my second book in a series of historical fiction. Now, I just have to do a final spell-check before I get someone [any volunteers] to read it before I risk publishing it. The book has about twenty-one thousand words, just like the first book, A Tale of Two Vikings. The working title of the book is The Crusade of Princes. Part of the reason I want a few volunteer readers is to perhaps find a better title for the book. The First Crusade only forms part of the book, albeit a significant part. There is no hint of naturism in the book, though there is an element of speculative fiction with the appearance of a couple of Celtic deities to serve as links between parts.

While that process is underway, I will return to a naturist novel that has been sitting in limbo for several months. Also needing my attention is a naturist space opera of sorts. It will likely be several more months before I can return to the space opera. When and where I get time to work on book three of the historical series which could end up with five to seven books in the series is hard to tell.

I think I’ll need to live to be more than a hundred if I am ever going to finish the stories that are yet lurking beneath the level of consciousness. And then there is a book that is being requested that will be the hardest task – the survival guide to navigating through midlife while holding a relationship together. Perhaps, if I can do that topic justice, it will end up being my legacy. Sigh, I get tired just thinking about all of this.

Now, if you would consider reading a small book, a historical novella, please leave a comment here, drop me an email or Twitter direct message, and I will get back to you. Thanks in advance.

I’m sitting in the darkness of early morning with only my screen and a fireplace set on low flame providing the only light as I write this post. Outside, a full moon makes the snow appear to glisten, while two female mule deer wander slowly down the street, stopping only metres away from the window to listen before slowly sauntering across the street to an empty lot. It’s cold outside, well sort of cold at -12 Celsius.

There is a light breeze blowing making it feel like -16 C. It’s the perfect time for one’s thinking to be less than bright and cheerful. As I scroll through my social media accounts, there is little to find that inspires hope. Stress is the norm. Frantic activity becomes a weapon to beat away the shadows that threaten. All of us need to find and use strategies to channel our frustrations. Our mental and physical well-being depends upon it.

It has been a year of losses for so many of us, if not most of us. Some have lost loved ones, some have lost livelihoods, some have lost connections with others, and most have lost faith in the governments that have been elected to protect us. I am trying to put a veneer of positivity in my own life. After all, I have everything I would ever need. I have no debts. I have good health, and I have family though I can’t visit them except virtually.

Covid19 did enter my world in a personal way when our middle child got the virus. She works in the medical world, a front-line worker. Thankfully, she got over it without damage though her three children and her husband lived in fear until she was cleared and able to return to working full-time with covid19 clients. She messaged me to let me know she just got the first dose of vaccine. Needless to say, it did a lot to ease the pressure in my chest.

In a few days, 2020 will come to an end. The vaccine has become the symbol of a pathway out of the darkness of 2020. Will I get the vaccine? When it is my turn, I will. I want to travel again so that I can actually see my children and grandchildren face-to-face, to hug them, and … the list is so long. Like everyone else in my network, both virtual and actual dimensions, there is a thread of hope that begins to grow as the nights begin to diminish, even if ever so slowly.

How long will it take? No one knows. We only know the now. There is no choice but to hold the tension of what is. Being present, even though it is painful in so many ways, is vital. Slipping into the dimension of the past, constantly looking at the world through a rear-view mirror only feeds depression. Escaping into thoughts of the future feeds a crippling anxiety. We have managed to get to today, and that is a major victory. The knowledge that there is a spring and summer to follow has fueled our collective psyche since humans became conscious beings, allowing us to walk through the darkness of time of year, of spirit, and relationship with others.

The full moon told me this, as did the flame that ripples in my fireplace.

It’s Boxing Day in Canada. It is snowing again, and the wind is blowing in from the northeast. The house is quiet with the exception of soft piano music that banishes the early morning silence of Boxing Day. I have finished the research needed for the last part of the Crusader novella that is all finished except for a rewrite of the last chapter. It is a writer’s kind of morning. Within all likelihood, the novella will be ready for the New Year. It’s also a morning for just wondering about the future.

The afternoon is all about online family activity with games and virtual visiting. With Covid putting an end to visiting once summer and outdoor gatherings became history, I have likely managed to see more of my grandchildren through virtual activity and video chats than I would have seen of them in a normal year.

Regardless, there is nothing like having a little one crawl into your bed to have a morning talk with a grandparent, or hugging your adult children, just because. From all that one can hear, it appears that a more normal world will be here by the end of the next outdoor season because of the vaccine. That will mean travel to our children’s homes. However, other travel will continue to be put on hold until the aftermath and fallout of Covid19 has begun to settle giving rise to new normals in other parts of the world. I don’t imagine that we will leave North America until 2022.

How has your world changed? How have you adapted to the changes?

I woke up early this morning, before five o’clock. I turned on the coffee pot, put up the temperature to a balmy 17 Celsius, then turned on the fireplace, before retreating to lay in bed for another ten minutes while waiting for the coffee to be ready. Then, with a fresh cup of coffee in hand,

I pulled up my rocking chair in front of the fireplace and set the coffee down before opening the draperies to the darkness outside. Then, I turned on the lights that frame the windows as well as the tree. It’s Christmas morning on the Canadian prairies, a white Christmas. I will be home alone as my wife is off to work a holiday shift in the local nursing

What a strange Christmas season! I have to admit that we often have Christmas to ourselves now that our children are grown up with homes and children of their own. Our first Christmas away from family was in 2004 when we spent it in Cuba. It was a year when our children were spending Christmas with their in-laws. Then, we were in China for four Christmases as I taught in a Chinese university.

Those years, we used Skype to connect. Then another Christmas out-of-country in 2017 when we were in Ecuador, another in-law year. However, technology has always been there for us to bridge the distance. But this year, we are home. Before the Covid19 pandemic reared it’s ugly head, we had already made the decision to be home for this Christmas, and for next Christmas as well.

I guess in a way, we have learned, as a family, to bridge distance. It was something that had to be learned at some point. This was going to be our year to host our family for Christmas. With borders closed and lockdowns in place, we are turning back to technology to make our Christmas connections.

It all began today with watching the youngest grandchildren open their gifts from their grandparents. The big celebration comes on Boxing Day was everyone will gather together using the “Room” feature of Messenger. We used Zoom for Easter and had a few issues with the time limitations that “Room” will avoid. Of course, we have tested it out with just about everyone.

There is a real sense of togetherness using technology. It has helped us navigate distance as a family when weather, work, or pandemics keep us apart. Our children are as much gypsies as we are. Frequent voice and video chats even when there isn’t a holiday involved has us all keep up with the small things in our lives, whether it is a well-pitched inning by grandson number five, a band performance by other grandsons, sledding down hills by the littlest, or playing games.

How are you going to spend Christmas this year? Will you risk travel? Will you risk extending the “bubble”? Will you be working? My only wish is that you find something positive in the day for yourself. If nothing else, join me in toasting the day with a glass of wine [or your beverage of choice, even if it is the evil eggnog].

Joyeux Noel! Merry Christmas, Blessed Yuletide, Feliz Navidad!

Unlike many others, I am social distancing in the truest form of the word, and though I am an introvert though and through, Even in this relative isolation, I am feeling all of the angst, anger, and frustration, and even fear that is swirling like some sort of toxic gas in my community. All if this is in response to the pressures to have everyone limit their bubble to their home partners.

In response, my neighbours seem to be visiting each other now more than once a day despite the instructions of the provincial government. They are already moaning about not being able to go anywhere and visit anyone, and about their families not being able to return to visit in their homes. And then they wonder why we don’t come over for wine and hors d’oeuvres or a neighbourly meal.

My wife and I do go out of our home. Every day we go for walks. When the wind blows too strongly, we put on our winter boots with ice cleats and walk around town, walks that range from three to six kilometres. When the wind abates, we head out into the countryside for longer walks ranging from six to twelve kilometres.

On those rare moments we pass anyone on our walks, they are always at least five metres away. Our rationale is simple – if we can’t travel to see our children and grandchildren because of COVID19 rules, then we aren’t going to replace them with non-family whom we are also required to avoid in this period of stringent rules. Now, this does take a toll on the psyche, even for an introvert.

Since my last visit here, I have written/edited everyday. I have also put up two more posts at a sister site called Through a Jungian Lens. The site is not about naturism in any way, shape or form. It is focused on psychology. More specifically, it is about my resonances with Jungian psychology. The present series of posts deal with issues of the masculine which in our modern world seem to come to the forefront as both men and women reach midlife. If interested, don’t hesitate to check it out.

As well, I have returned to an older work-in-progress, a historical novel that is eerily realistic. It is hard to actually describe it as a novel as the plot line of history has already been written. My story in this book follows one man through a number of decades from his appearance in history [a real man] at the Battle of Hastings to his reappearance in the first Crusade, the Crusade of Princes. The man existed and had his name recorded in both events. In telling his story, there was no option but to fill in all of the holes that history leaves behind. This book about a Crusader is the follow-up to my recently published book, A Tale of Two Vikings.

I am hoping that over the next few days, I will return to speak more about personality types and naturism. Until then, stay safe.

Beneath our clothing does indeed exist a body, bare skin covering bones and organs. Since all bodies have skin, bones and organs, that can be defined as normal. However, you and I know that each of us are more than our mass of messy cells. To be honest, I have yet to meet a single person who is fully “self aware,” and I include myself in that group.

There are more things that I don’t know about myself, than I do know. That seems to be strange considering I have been actively been in search of “self” for most of my seventy-one years. I need to go back to Freud’s example of consciousness and the unconscious using the analogy of an iceberg. What is known is just a small part of who we are as individuals. It all gets so much more complicated when we add in the fact that we exist in a collective.

The individual unconscious is just the tip of a different iceberg which has the collective unconscious buried under water. So much for being fully self aware. We just do the best we can do despite all the unknowns. Clarity and sharp focus becomes the real illusion. We are left with more questions than answers. And that is why and when I return to “generalised” peeks at “self” via personality types.

Before going further, let me say that every single human psyche likely contains all personality types to some degree. I may be 90% introvert, but that also means that I am 10% extrovert in terms of personality attitude. As for the personality functions of Intuition, Sensation, Thinking, and Feeling, I am more oriented to Intuition than Sensation, as well as more likely to use Feeling than Thinking in making decisions based on what my intuition and senses have gathered to fuel my decisions. I may “think” otherwise, but analysis after the fact proves otherwise. We individually and naturally gravitate to one irrational function and one rational function when we don’t try do force the issue.

What do I mean about trying to force the issue? Well I can examine the data presented to my eyes, and other senses and make decisions based on that evidence. All of us can and do make decisions this way. I can also walk into a scene and my intuition [inner radar?] kicks in and I end up making a decision based on my intuition despite what my five senses might be telling me. Again, we all do that to some extent. There is no mystery here. It all comes down to the question, “What’s my unconscious go-to way of gathering decision-making data?” For me, it’s intuition by far.

In Jungian psychology terms, that then suggests that I have a personality that can be described as “Introverted Intuition” or IN when looking at my unconscious preferences involving the irrational functions of Sensation and Intuition. The polar opposite of this would be the “extroverted sensation” or ES type. Again, I am talking about the “unconscious” preferences. Each of us can, and does use conscious will to gather information via intuition and senses, which means that at times [not too often] I can be described as having an ES personality. Confusing? Yes, and no. The point I am trying to make is that we are too elastic as humans to be very easily categorised when it comes to personality. However, we can come very, very close.

Now, to go back to the idea that my intuition is my “natural” unconscious manner of being aware of the world around me. As a naturist, I go free-hiking. Somehow, I manage to avoid being seen while naked. Call it a “spidey sense” or whatever, but I just know that I need to put my shorts back on, and I act on that impulse. The vast majority of the time, a farm pick up truck appears from behind a hill. The driver waves and I return the wave.

There has only been one occasion when this hasn’t worked for me while I was out free-hiking. I was walking along, my shorts safely tucked in a spot that was easy for me to reach. My wife was walking alongside of me. We were chatting – my sense of hearing was focused. Before either of us could realise it, a truck had just appeared behind us leaving me no time to put my shorts back on. The best that I could do was to slowly turn as the farmer passed so that only my buttocks would be seen. Needless to say, when I walk this route with my wife now, I wear shorts, and when I walk it alone I can do so free-hiking.

Now, for someone who naturally gathers data via their senses rather than via intuition, there would have been no free-hiking down that road. Rather, free-hiking would be done well off any road that showed signs of being used. Are there any recent tracks in the dust and dirt? What season is it in terms of likelihood for a farmer to be out and about? Are there any blind spots that could hide an approaching vehicle? And other questions exist as well.

For a person who primarily uses their senses, the occasions for free-hiking are significantly diminished. And when the risks are taken, my best guess is that they are more likely to be surprised by others. Of course, this is hypothetical and based on the degree of one’s intuition or sensation unconscious preferences. In my case, intuition measured greater than 90%. However, if it had been 54%, intuition would need to be supplemented with sensation to arrive at the best possible result.

Using your best guess, would you say you are more: IN, IS, EN, or ES? And yes, I know, you are all four of them. Yet, when you let your will power and ego get out of the way, you do have a natural resting point.